Column: Fight against same-sex marriage is doomed to fail

Albert Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It makes you wonder what the smartest man of the 20th century, who was a New Jersey resident, would think of today's political tomfoolery.

Einstein came to mind as another group trooped down to the Gold Dome to hold another news conference on yesterday's news, same-sex marriage. This one started out by congratulating Gov. Chris Christie for appealing a Superior Court decision that said there could be same-sex marriages starting Oct. 21.

Anti-gay marriage people keep on trucking down the highway that's going to lead them over a cliff where they will crash on the hard rocks of history's judgment - like the people who fought to block interracial marriage.

When I tell the younger people in my family that interracial marriage was illegal in many places, they think I'm making it up, and when I assure them as an AP reporter I covered the battle to remove that prohibition from Alabama's constitution, they think I am joking because a law like that could only have been before the Civil War.

That's one reason comments from the Rev. Clenard H. Childress seem so out of place.

"As an African American clergyman, it's also alarming to me that you would call sexual orientation a civil right. Civil rights are birth rights." Sexuality, he said, "is something that parents' decisions and verbiage and education and knowledge will definitely play a vital role (in)."

The arguments from Alabama's fight to keep the anti-miscegenation laws in the state constitution are being recycled. Everything from "It would be against God's laws" to "It would mean the end of traditional marriage" were tossed around back then, too.

"Our position is that the good people of New Jersey be trusted with this decision," said Donald Sico, the New Jersey lobbyist for the National Organization for Marriage. "Let's have a conversation, a dialogue, a debate."

That's right, the NOM has a paid lobbyist to campaign for putting the issue on the ballot. Christie has called for a referendum too, but as the Asbury Park Press said on its editorial page, "he'd be loathe to put other decisions to a public vote."

Two things about that: This country has a history of civil rights being decided by elected representatives or the courts. And, it's in the hands of the court now. (Some people are hesitant to give up their exclusive rights because it gives them a sense of superiority. If public accommodations were put to a vote, in some parts of the country black folks would still have separate water fountains.)

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson ruled same-sex couples are being denied equal rights in order to get the full benefits heterosexual couples get. Ordinarily, that would be appealed to an appeals panel, but Christie wants it to go straight to the state Supreme Court. Democrats in the state Senate would like to see it expedited as well.

Acting Attorney General John Hoffman asked the high court to freeze the lower court decision until the state Supreme Court has ruled. Sen. Ray Lesniak says Christie is wasting taxpayer money on an appeal because same-sex marriage is inevitable.

Christie critics maintain the delay is about the governor's future political plans, not what is best for New Jersey. They contend when same-sex marriage is eventually the law, Christie will tell the far-right wing of his Republican Party that he did all he could, but the darned ol' courts stepped in.

That may play well with that crowd, not known for its in-depth analysis, but should Christie make it through a presidential primary, his personal objection in a state where polls show the public approves of same-sex marriage will be wrapped around his neck along with the absurd arguments being made by the anti-gay marriage crowd.

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Column: Fight against same-sex marriage is doomed to fail

Albert Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It makes you wonder what the smartest man of the 20th century, who was a New Jersey resident,

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